Best Buy's $10 BlueTooth Headset Pairing Service Includes Finger Pointing

[Ed Hansberry]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/14/best-buys-10-bluetooth-headset-pairing-service-includes-testin/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/14/...ncludes-testin/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"See what it's come to Bluetooth SIG? Headset-to-cellphone pairing is so utterly baffling to average consumers that they are now handing over a Hamilton at Best Buys in California (in support of the new hands-free calling law) just to avoid the procedure. Eight years after the launch of the world's first Bluetooth headset from Ericsson, this is where we're at."</em><br /><br />This comes as no shock to me. A few days ago, my BT headset inexplicably stopped working with my phone and I had to delete and recreate the partnership. I hope Best Buy is offering a 90 day guarantee on the pairing or consumers will have to fork over $10 everytime the headset profile decides to puke and lose your settings. A fellow MVP asked why MS didn't hire the Windows Mobile MVPs to help with this. My response is, at $10 a pairing, I would work at McDonalds and average more dollars per hour with less stress.<br /><br />I did finally figure out what SIG stands for. It is Latin for Servitas Infinitus Gravatus, which roughly translates into "Service that is forever ill."<br /></p>

[Rob Alexander]

"See what it's come to Bluetooth SIG? Headset-to-cellphone pairing is so utterly baffling to average consumers that they are now handing over a Hamilton at Best Buys in California (in support of the new hands-free calling law) just to avoid the procedure. Eight years after the launch of the world's first Bluetooth headset from Ericsson, this is where we're at."



Sounds reasonable. If you're too clueless to follow the simple instructions for pairing your headset, then you should have to pay a $10 fine anyway just for being a drain on society. It was funny to see this article right now because I just bought a new Jabra BT8040 headset from BB this afternoon (not in California, though, just 'cause I needed one). It turned on in pairing mode and waited for me to tell my WM phone to look for it, I typed in the four zeros, hit next twice and they were paired. It took all of about 45 seconds. I know Ed hates BT, and never misses a chance to criticize it, but I really don't see what's so hard about it. If something even better comes along someday, then I'll be all for it, but in the meantime, it's working fine for me.

[JohnJohn]

too funny, get it free from um...BestBuy

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?guideID=1099396123330&type=page&id=cat12077

[dma1965]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/14/best-buys-10-bluetooth-headset-pairing-service-includes-testin/' target='_blank'>http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/14/...ncludes-testin/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"See what it's come to Bluetooth SIG? Headset-to-cellphone pairing is so utterly baffling to average consumers that they are now handing over a Hamilton at Best Buys in California (in support of the new hands-free calling law) just to avoid the procedure. Eight years after the launch of the world's first Bluetooth headset from Ericsson, this is where we're at."</em><br /><br />This comes as no shock to me. A few days ago, my BT headset inexplicably stopped working with my phone and I had to delete and recreate the partnership. I hope Best Buy is offering a 90 day guarantee on the pairing or consumers will have to fork over $10 everytime the headset profile decides to puke and lose your settings. A fellow MVP asked why MS didn't hire the Windows Mobile MVPs to help with this. My response is, at $10 a pairing, I would work at McDonalds and average more dollars per hour with less stress.<br /><br />I did finally figure out what SIG stands for. It is Latin for Servitas Infinitus Gravatus, which roughly translates into "Service that is forever ill."<br /></p>

Ed is just annoyed that his premature prediction of the death of Bluetooth did not come true.

Face it, Ed, Bluetooth is far less than perfect, but it is still not nearly as annoying as most of the other crap we have to put up with in Windows (any flavor you like). I will deal with all the annoyances of Bluetooth so I do not have to be tethered to a wire. Now that I got my Plantronics Voyager 855 stereo Bluetooth headset, I no longer bother using my iPod. I cannot stand being tethered to anything.

[Jonathan1]

Its just as much MS's fault as anyone else's. I have a BT headset and in car BT audio in my Prius and it switches flawlessly from one to another on my cheapo LG phone that my company provides. The only time I've ever had issues with BT is when dealing with BT on my Winmobo phone.

[Ed Hansberry]

Its just as much MS's fault as anyone else's. I have a BT headset and in car BT audio in my Prius and it switches flawlessly from one to another on my cheapo LG phone that my company provides. The only time I've ever had issues with BT is when dealing with BT on my Winmobo phone.

I have issues with my laptop, and that is a Toshiba BT stack that Dell uses. More often than not, stopping and restarting the service works, though occasionally a reboot is required.

[jgrnt1]

Its just as much MS's fault as anyone else's. I have a BT headset and in car BT audio in my Prius and it switches flawlessly from one to another on my cheapo LG phone that my company provides. The only time I've ever had issues with BT is when dealing with BT on my Winmobo phone.

I have to agree. See my post about buying an iPhone 3G this past week.

http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f322/ive-turned-dark-side-iphone-3g-89991.html

I hate to say it (since I've been a staunch anti-Apple person for a long time), but Apple has gotten things right with the iPhone in its second generation that Microsoft hasn't gotten right in, what, 9 or 10 generations? One of them seems to be the BT stack.

[daS]

Sounds reasonable. If you're too clueless to follow the simple instructions for pairing your headset, then you should have to pay a $10 fine anyway just for being a drain on society.
While I wouldn't say it quite so harshly, I agree with you that all it takes is a willingness to read a few lines of instructions. If you've never done it, I would guess that pairing a headset to a phone would take as much as five minutes. (I don't think they pay $120/hr at Micky-D's)
It took all of about 45 seconds.I have purchased a few different brands of Bluetooth headsets and car kits from http://www.woot.com, many of which were referbs that didn't come with any documentation. In all cases, and with all phones - including WM, Nokia and Motos, it took far less than a minute to figure it out without reading anything. While boring, I would love to spend a few weeks pairing phones with headsets at $10/per. :D
I know Ed hates BT, and never misses a chance to criticize it, but I really don't see what's so hard about it. If something even better comes along someday, then I'll be all for it, but in the meantime, it's working fine for me.
I feel exactly the same way. :rolleyes: It's true that some things are harder (like getting your phone to act as a modem for your PC - which was more an issue of the software on the AT&T Tilt than it was a pairing issue caused by Bluetooth.) But phones and headsets are as easy as it gets these days. I know a few "technophobic" seniors that have done it themselves.

[Ed Hansberry]

I feel exactly the same way. :rolleyes: It's true that some things are harder (like getting your phone to act as a modem for your PC - which was more an issue of the software on the AT&T Tilt than it was a pairing issue caused by Bluetooth.) But phones and headsets are as easy as it gets these days. I know a few "technophobic" seniors that have done it themselves.

Wifi is as easy as it gets (assuming no encryption or just typing in a WEP/WPA key.) Plugging in an ethernet cable is as easy as it gets. IR Beaming is as easy as it gets. Bluetooth, OTOH, may require soft reset, enabling discovery mode, then remembering to disable them, and just general tecknological cantankerousness.

Just today I had the strangest thing happen. I had a voice mail on my cell. I dialed the number and opened up my BT headset to listen. I assumed I had just missed the "please enter your password" comment, because I was connected but heard nothing. So I typed in my password followed by # and all I hear is the little buzz. Turns out even though I was connected and the BT headset icon was on, it was still using the phone speaker. Ok, fine. listen to the message and then hang up. Now, my BT headset is still in my other ear. After hangin up, my headset springs to live and I am getting the "you must dial a one or zero before calling that number" message and now my phone screen is showing that I had dialed my PIN as an actual phone number, while it simultaneously took it at the vmail center.

I guarantee you that wouldn't have happened had I just plugged a wired headset in.

I know you guys think I am a luddite when it comes to bluetooth. That's fine. I can live with it. I just know that for me, and many I interact with, bluetooth is as friendly and as trouble free as those confounded customized modem INIT strings of yesteryear.

[Duncan]

Wifi is as easy as it gets (assuming no encryption or just typing in a WEP/WPA key.) Plugging in an ethernet cable is as easy as it gets. IR Beaming is as easy as it gets. Bluetooth, OTOH, may require soft reset, enabling discovery mode, then remembering to disable them, and just general tecknological cantankerousness.

I like that - 'Wifi is as easy as it gets (assuming no encryption or just typing in a WEP/WPA key'. That's one hell of a qualification there. WiFi can be fantastically easy without security - but then you'd be pretty stupid not to secure your WiFi. The same applies to Bluetooth.

You can't have a radio based short distance communication technology without security. You can complain as much as you want about pairing, enabling and disabling discovery mode, but what's the alternative? Having an insecure connection?

You can't compare IR beaming (a close distance direct beam that is impossible to hack or access) or an Ethernet cable (the same) to a radio based connection. Those are no more reasonable comparisons than your security free WiFi is.

The truth is that Bluetooth connections are a lot easier than WiFi connections for people to set up. They are also about as easy to set up as they can be (set devices to discover mode, find them, enter pin, close discover mode). I'd challenge anyone to find a simpler method of enabling a secure short range wireless connection (save going backwards to IR). Any alternative to Bluetooth is going to have to do the same, or something similar.

Frankly - anyone not smart enough to be able to grasp setting up Bluetooth connections (especially when most devices hand-hold you through the process) shouldn't be trusted with technology. My wife, who looks at TV remote controls with something approaching a technophobic panic, was able to set up a Bluetooth connection between her phone, a headset and an in car speaker entirely by herself. That tells me all I need to know about the technology.

Seriously - in, what, eight or nine years of Bluetooth usage, only two devices have ever caused me problems. One was due to an early Microsoft stack and the other an asinine set up from Sony (who deliberately messed up the standard so it would only talk to Clies). I'm fairly sure that my Pocket PC ownership is in double figures now, I've had around seven headsets and two stereo headsets, my connection to my main stereo system is Bluetooth and my portable speakers are also Bluetooth enabled, I've not had to connect any device to my printer with a cable in five years and the idea of connecting my phone or Pocket PC to my PC by cable horrifies me. My PPC is beside me right now - and my laptop is in the room next door. ActiveSync between them just finished (having started automatically) about five minutes ago.

I know you guys think I am a luddite when it comes to bluetooth. That's fine. I can live with it. I just know that for me, and many I interact with, bluetooth is as friendly and as trouble free as those confounded customized modem INIT strings of yesteryear.

You're unusual I'll say that. I was in a train station the other day and it was hard to see anyone who wasn't Bluetoothed up. I've helped friends with almost every aspect of technology over the years, but have never been asked to help with Bluetooth (and I've recommended its use many a time) and have been thanked for pointing people towards the technology.

If you are a Luddite, then you are a curiously selective one. You'll forgive WiFi it's complexities (and I'll point to Jason's recent rant on 802.11n as an example of how user unfriendly that can be), but get annoyed at Bluetooth for taking you through the fewest and simplest possible steps to ensure a secure connection. You constantly hold out hope for other short range wireless technologies, but never seem to think about how they will ensure secure connections, or how they can be that different to Bluetooth. You've predicted the death of Bluetooth time and time again yet, for all its supposed user-unfriendliness, it's now so big as to be pretty much ubiquitous. I would bet too that if a piece of WiFi kit turned out to be poor you wouldn't blame the standard, you'd blame the implementation - yet with Bluetooth you always blame the standard and never the implementation of that standard.

Seriously Ed - I don't know how many thousands of anti-BT posts you're up to now, but Bluetooth won conclusively a while back. The technology is easy, widely used, and poor implementations are rare now. That Best Buy has found a way to fleece people by offering a service that no-one with a three figure IQ should need says far more about them and people's innate laziness (heaven forbid they should read the manual or follow on screen instructions for themselves) than it does about Bluetooth.

[Ed Hansberry]

I like that - 'Wifi is as easy as it gets (assuming no encryption or just typing in a WEP/WPA key'. That's one hell of a qualification there. WiFi can be fantastically easy without security - but then you'd be pretty stupid not to secure your WiFi. The same applies to Bluetooth.
Really? Starbucks doesn't have a secure WiFi connection. Most hotels don't either. Just run your laptop or PDA on and you are connected. You might have to type in a user id and password on a web page, or might have to click on an EULA, but that's it. I wasn't talking about setting up a Wifi network, just making a connection. Even when you have to type in a WEP/WPA key, it just works, for months and years. With all of my headsets and BT devices, I have to delete and recreate pairings several times a year to get them to work.

You're unusual I'll say that. I was in a train station the other day and it was hard to see anyone who wasn't Bluetoothed up. I've helped friends with almost every aspect of technology over the years, but have never been asked to help with Bluetooth (and I've recommended its use many a time) and have been thanked for pointing people towards the technology.

If you are a Luddite, then you are a curiously selective one. You'll forgive WiFi it's complexities (and I'll point to Jason's recent rant on 802.11n as an example of how user unfriendly that can be), but get annoyed at Bluetooth for taking you through the fewest and simplest possible steps to ensure a secure connection. You constantly hold out hope for other short range wireless technologies, but never seem to think about how they will ensure secure connections, or how they can be that different to Bluetooth. You've predicted the death of Bluetooth time and time again yet, for all its supposed user-unfriendliness, it's now so big as to be pretty much ubiquitous. I would bet too that if a piece of WiFi kit turned out to be poor you wouldn't blame the standard, you'd blame the implementation - yet with Bluetooth you always blame the standard and never the implementation of that standard.

Seriously Ed - I don't know how many thousands of anti-BT posts you're up to now, but Bluetooth won conclusively a while back. The technology is easy, widely used, and poor implementations are rare now. That Best Buy has found a way to fleece people by offering a service that no-one with a three figure IQ should need says far more about them and people's innate laziness (heaven forbid they should read the manual or follow on screen instructions for themselves) than it does about Bluetooth.

Duncan, I just don't see the world through bluetooth tinted glasses, that's all.

[Duncan]

Really? Starbucks doesn't have a secure WiFi connection. Most hotels don't either. Just run your laptop or PDA on and you are connected. You might have to type in a user id and password on a web page, or might have to click on an EULA, but that's it. I wasn't talking about setting up a Wifi network, just making a connection. Even when you have to type in a WEP/WPA key, it just works, for months and years. With all of my headsets and BT devices, I have to delete and recreate pairings several times a year to get them to work.

With my BT devices I set them up and pair them and then that is it. Just making a connection is as simple as that. Though initial set up is simpler than for WiFi. I have no idea why you have so many problems. Frankly I find your experiences more than a bit weird - could it be that your devices know you don't like their Bluetooth abilities and so deliberately set out to wind you up? ;)

Duncan, I just don't see the world through bluetooth tinted glasses, that's all.

Sorry Ed, but no. I go through life not thinking or caring about the Bluetooth abilities of my devices. It's so simple, obvious and useful that 99.9% of the time I regard Bluetooth with as much thought as I do my power cables. All I care about is that they work and they make things easier.

I responded here mainly because I do find your one man war on Bluetooth to be just a touch funny, in its sheer doggedness in the face of all the evidence about how much Bluetooth is now an everyday matter for so many people. Not to mention that I've never seen an answer from you as to how Bluetooth connections, which need to be secure, could be made better or simpler.

To be frank Ed, I really don't think it's me that has the distorted vision here.

[daS]

Really? Starbucks doesn't have a secure WiFi connection. Most hotels don't either. Just run your laptop or PDA on and you are connected. You might have to type in a user id and password on a web page, or might have to click on an EULA, but that's it. I wasn't talking about setting up a Wifi network, just making a connection. Even when you have to type in a WEP/WPA key, it just works, for months and years.
Well, try connecting to a hotel Wi-Fi using your Windows Mobile device. At best it's a challenge to scroll around the login Web page to find the fields to fill in, at worst (and quite often) it's impossible because the Web page doesn't support mini browsers.
I have also had numerous problems with devices - both laptops and Windows Mobile, not finding a wireless network that it was previously connected to. Performing a reboot usually solves this, but sometimes I need to delete the Wi-Fi network and re-enter it in order to make the connection.
I agree with you that Bluetooth is far from perfect, but the issues it has are not atypical of high-tech "standards".

[Ed Hansberry]

I responded here mainly because I do find your one man war on Bluetooth to be just a touch funny, in its sheer doggedness in the face of all the evidence about how much Bluetooth is now an everyday matter for so many people. Not to mention that I've never seen an answer from you as to how Bluetooth connections, which need to be secure, could be made better or simpler.

To be frank Ed, I really don't think it's me that has the distorted vision here.
The maybe you didn't notice that I was linking to another article on the issue, so it isn't just me that has the "distorted vision."

[Ed Hansberry]

Well, try connecting to a hotel Wi-Fi using your Windows Mobile device. At best it's a challenge to scroll around the login Web page to find the fields to fill in, at worst (and quite often) it's impossible because the Web page doesn't support mini browsers.
Yeah, PIE is more and more of a pain and simply unacceptable when the iPhone has had a real browser out now for more than a year.

[Duncan]

The maybe you didn't notice that I was linking to another article on the issue, so it isn't just me that has the "distorted vision."

I did notice the linked article Ed. I also noticed its sarcastic tone and the headline ('finger pointing') that showed what the Engadget guy thought of those needing such a service. A also read the comments section - chock full of people being scathing about those who can't handle pairing a BT headset.

Total technophobes, lazy sods and idiots - in a nutshell the three groups of people who can't cope with such a simple task (and that's a lot less of a harsh assessment than I could give). Mind you - my wife is in that first group, and she didn't need my help pairing a BT headset.

Linking to an article doesn't make you any the less of an exception either Ed. The millions who use BT headsets and in-car kits every day are proof enough that most people find the technology easy enough and good enough. I was in a mobile phone shop yesterday. Mindful of this thread I asked the guy (who had been telling me about the number of returns they'd had for one phone model) about people returning or having issues with Bluetooth devices. His answer? That he'd never processed a return that wasn't because the device was simply faulty, and that the number of people who needed simple phone functions explaining dwarfed those who had issues with Bluetooth.

[Duncan]

Yeah, PIE is more and more of a pain and simply unacceptable when the iPhone has had a real browser out now for more than a year.

Opera on the HTC Touch Pro is a thing of joy though (and presumably, by extension, on the Diamond as well). Arguably better than Safari.

[mtnmedic]

What's the world coming to? Heh...

I didn't know about this until I was in Staples yesterday standing in the checkout line when I saw a sign hanging with "(Bluetooth symbol) Paring $9.99". I was pretty dumbstruck, I gotta tell ya. I just stood there, scratching my head, trying to figure out what that meant because, well, pairing Bluetooth devices isn't exactly rocket science. In fact, practically second-nature stuff like doing other settings such as entering contacts and setting up ringers, etc. At least for me, anyway.

No sooner had I begun to wonder when I saw a pensioner sit down in one of the display chairs near the checkout with a Bluetooth earphone in one hand and his phone in another. He had all kinds of looks of frustration and puzzlement across his face. Interesting footnote: he had no manual cracked open anywhere near him. Right then I figured it out. Either he was trying to save the $10 (likely- any amount is important on a fixed budget) or he wasn't going to let his pride get the best of him figuring things out the hard way. Being the nice guy that I was (bored standing in the long line, really), I walked over to him and assisted him with the pairing, showing him how it's done.